By Ray Dunkelberg, MD,
PPL Board Member
MYTH: Abortion Rights empower women.
FACT: When there is one out of two chances that
an abortion takes
the life of a female child?
In the United States, there have been an estimated 66 million abortions or more since 1973 (Roe v. Wade) and, if half of these are female, that’s 33 million females - your sisters, your female best friends, nieces, aunts, your daughters, and their mothers and grandmothers potentially. How can it possibly be that it is so empowering to sacrifice other females in the millions? Innumerable preborn baby girls will never have had the chance to live the life that you have enjoyed.
“Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
Fact Sheet for May 17, 2024.
If abortion rights are so empowering, why is it that no abortionist or abortion clinic will allow the mother to hear the heartbeat or see the baby move by ultrasound? How can it be that in making one of the most important decisions, perhaps in her whole life, that this very critical information is withheld? How does this make women more informed and powerful? Are they not to be trusted to make the correct decision if they see their child move or hear the preborn’s heartbeat? Apparently not. If I were the mother (or father) and later had regrets and realized critical information had been intentionally withheld, I would be very upset.
And secondly, if abortion is an example of empowering women, why are they not counseled about the potential consequences of this decision in terms of how it may negatively affect the rest of their lives – their mental health, physical health, marriage relationship, their relationship with their future children, their own self-image, etc. Abortionists poo-poo these possibilities but those who counsel these women in later life in women’s care centers and other life-affirming women’s clinics can attest to the profound effects abortion can have: deep regret, depression, subsequent marriage difficulties, secretive or compromised relationships with their family and children. Even if only 1% is profoundly affected, because of the huge numbers, this translates into tens of thousands of women.
In the United States, it is the standard of care
to make sure that each patient understands the risks versus benefits
of any such procedure. It is called “full disclosure.”
But these women are not offered this most
basic standard of care.
Why are these vulnerable women treated with such disrespect? Since it is the practice of abortionists, abortion clinics and the abortion industry (a multi-billion dollar industry) to withhold such critical information from the mother, it suggests that perhaps their primary motive is not about truly caring for women. Hopefully, this serves to inform anyone reading, or it will at least raise enough questions that you will explore it further. Prayerfully, pastors will step up and make sure that their congregation knows what Scripture and 2,000 years of Christianity say about the inherent value of the unborn child, male or female.
Excerpts from "Life: A Biblical Perspective"
Does every woman have the right to control her own body? Is it her own body (Does the definition of "every woman" include the female fetus?)
Psalm 127:3 “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.”
I Corinthians 6:19,20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you
were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of
worship.”
I Peter 2:16 “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.”